Journal Entries

Monday, April 02, 2007

My final prep for the AIDS Ride took place on Saturday night with a quick trip over to Kinko’s.I thought it would be nice to recognize everyone who made a donation by creating a sign that I could pin to my jersey during the ride.You can see a larger version of the sign here.When I returned home, I assembled everything else I would need the next morning, knowing full well that I would barely be functioning.

Sunday was the big day for the AIDS Ride.Started off by shocking my body awake a good four or five hours earlier than it’s been accustomed to lately, packed my bike and gear into the car and headed down to Harbor Island.While I can’t say I’ve seen the crack of dawn in a long time, I feel comfortable saying that that morning must have been abnormally cold and foggy.It’s always a tough call figuring out how many layers to start a bike ride with on a cold morning.If I start with too many, my body’s burning up after the first 10 minutes and then I have to find someway of stowing the extra clothing; too few and no matter how far I’m riding, it’s going to be a long, cold, miserable time.For the ride, I opted to just add arm and leg warmers (to answer your question, no, they weren’t of the Flashdance variety) and leave my jacket in the car.It was a combination that proved to be a bit short of ideal.

Overall, the turnout for the event was pretty good.The head of UCSD’s AIDS Research Institute was on hand to make the opening speech and UCSD’s Chancellor dropped the flag to start the ride.The bikes got underway at 8:00AM and they were releasing about 10 riders every 2-3 minutes (they staggered the start to spread people out since it wasn’t a race).A friend of mine from UCSD, Jason, elected to do the same ride as me, so we paired up for the entire course.Here’s a picture I took towards the end of the ride; as you can see, the fog never really lifted, nor did the temperature.

When we got back to the start/finish area, Jason took off; I opted to stick around because I knew some folks that were doing one of the other rides and I wanted to chat with them for a bit.Additionally, there was a raffle, other give-a-ways and Sierra Nevada was sponsoring a beer garden.During the festivities, Being Alive (the group that organized the ride) recognized a few of the top fundraisers; imagine my surprise when they called my name as one of the top 5!Again, a testament to all of you who donated and your generosity!

After the ride, I went home and immediately fell asleep for the next four or five hours.Woke up for dinner and then went right back to sleep.I guess my body wasn’t quite ready to do the ride, certainly my ass wasn’t -- a fact that I’m reminded of every time I sit down.